Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator

Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship

The Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship offers Harvard Business School alumni and Harvard-affiliated postdocs the opportunity to create new ventures around promising life-science technologies while developing their leadership talents.

Supporting Blavatnik Fellows in their pursuit of successful enterprise creation, the program provides practical materials for entrepreneurship—time, working space, operating funds—with access to strategic resources—mentorship, workshops, and fireside chats, with industry experts.

The Blavatnik Fellowship is led by faculty chair Peter Barrett, PhD. The members of the Key Advisory Board, leading industry and biomedical authorities, provide programmatic guidance as well as one-on-one mentorship to Blavatnik Fellows. The Blavatnik Entrepreneurship Network, a consortium of top business and science leaders, provides Fellows additional mentorship channels.

Ideal candidates are MBA alumni of Harvard Business School who have graduated within the last 7–10 years. New in 2020: The Fellowship is also accepting applications from post-doctoral candidates within the first 5 years of their training program at a Harvard program or research lab. The program is a full-time, salaried, residential fellowship. As such, Blavatnik Fellows are expected to reside in the Boston area, are eligible to enroll in a range of Harvard employee benefits, and receive work space at the Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab.

Application Process

Admission to the Blavatnik Fellowship is competitive and open to HBS MBA alumni who have graduated within the last 7–10 years and Harvard-affiliated postdocs who have finished their PhD within the last 5 years. Download the documents below:

Five Years of Thinking Big

By bringing together expertise and experience from across Harvard, the Accelerator and the HBS Fellows program will further enhance Harvard’s commitment to innovative research and entrepreneurship.

Dean Nitin Nohria

Harvard Business School

2019–20 Fellows

Anu Atluru (MD 2016, MBA 2019) has diverse experience in entrepreneurship, management consulting, and medicine. She started a medical technology venture, Safe-C, to reduce complications in high-risk cesarean section deliveries. At Deloitte Consulting, Anu served Fortune 500 clients in technology and telecommunications across strategy, operations, and mergers and acquisitions. While completing her residency internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, she was named 40 under 40 for health care innovation by MedTech Boston and published in The Atlantic and The Journal of the American Medical Association. Anu received her BBA in Business Honors and Finance from The University of Texas at Austin, an MD from The University of Texas Southwestern, and MBA from HBS as a Baker Scholar.

Steven Dalvin (MD/MBA 2019) is an entrepreneur and engineer passionate about advancing medical care. During his undergraduate education, he worked on multiple medical device design projects including a replacement gastric feeding tube and a minimally invasive lung biopsy device. As a medical student, Dalvin co-founded the Makerspace prototyping lab at Harvard Medical School to support student entrepreneurs. He has co-developed several mobile applications including an app to measure tissue perfusion using a cell phone camera, an app to measure sudden cardiac death risk via EKG readings, and an iPhone game. Dalvin received a BS in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and earned his MD and MBA from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and HBS.

Philip Jeng (MBA 2019) draws from a diverse background in engineering, consulting, and investing within the life sciences industry. He is passionate about translating innovative technology into products to help patients on a global-level. Over the past few years, Jeng has dedicated himself to learning about the dynamic health care landscape in China and early-stage investing through experiences at Qiming Venture Partners USA and Quan Capital. Prior to business school, he worked as a consultant at ZS Associates where he worked on pharmaceutical and medical device projects. Jeng began his career in the Process Development Rotational Program (PDRP) at Genentech where he gained experience in purification, process development engineering, and device development. He has a BS in bioengineering from UC Berkeley and an MBA from HBS.

Laura Kelley (MBA 2019) is an entrepreneur and public health professional with broad experience in commercializing health technologies in emerging markets. As a Blavatnik Fellow, she is focused on commercializing next generation, precision oncology diagnostics. Prior to starting her venture, she led corporate strategy for Pyramid Pharma Ltd., a pan-African health services company, where she worked with partners such as Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic Plc on marketing, regulatory and reimbursement strategies across the continent. In addition, Kelley worked at Clinton Health Access Initiative and advised governments and the private sector on market-based solutions to increase access to malaria diagnosis and treatment. She has experience at Lightstone Ventures, an early stage life sciences fund. Laura received a BA from Rice University, an MPH from Columbia University, and an MBA from HBS.

Rena Xu (MD/MBA 2014) has a longstanding interest in improving health care delivery. She gained firsthand understanding of the challenges and opportunities during her work as a consultant in the health care practice at Boston Consulting Group and then trained in urologic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has explored health care delivery topics through medical writings for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New England Journal of Medicine. As a Blavatnik Fellow, Xu will work on building a physician quality assessment tool to help patients make more informed health care choices. She is a graduate of Harvard College, and subsequently received her MD and MBA degrees from HMS and HBS.

Faculty Chair

Peter Barrett, PhD, is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, where he teaches Commercializing Science to second year MBA students and directs the Blavatnik Fellowship program.

In addition to his work at Harvard, Peter is a Partner at Atlas Venture, an early stage life science venture capital firm. Since 2002, Peter has been involved in the creation of several novel therapeutic and drug discovery platform companies. Prior to Atlas he was co-founder, executive vice president, and chief business officer of Celera Genomics, and held senior management positions at Applera. Peter is currently chairman of Obsidian Therapeutics, Zafgen, Cadent Therapeutics, and Synlogic and sits on the boards of Indalo and Perkin Elmer.

Peter received a BS in chemistry from Lowell Technological Institute (now known as the University of Massachusetts, Lowell) and a PhD in analytical chemistry from Northeastern University. He also completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development.

Blavatnik Fellowship Key Advisory Board

Peter Barrett, PhD, Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, Partner Legacy Funds at Atlas Venture, and Faculty Chair of the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship

Srikant M. Datar, PhD, Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration, Faculty Chair of the Harvard Innovation Lab, HBS One Harvard Faculty Fellow, and Senior Associate Dean for University Affairs at Harvard Business School